Use Your Run to Earn Cash for Charity

Jogging
(Image credit: Unknown)

Running’s good for you, but now you can use your run for good. Just grab your shoes, your smartphone or tracker, and go.

Online running community Running Heroes has launched #MyMileMatters, a fundraising challenge that gives runners the chance to win £3,000 for their chosen charity and a week-long running holiday for themselves worth £1,500. All you have to do is run one mile on six different days before 20th October to be entered into the draw.

You’ll need to sign up with Running Heroes to take part in the challenge, but it’ll takes less than a minute. Then you just need to link your device and start running. The challenge page displays how many participants, how many finishers and how many days remain, so you’ll be able to see how you compare.

Runners earn points every time they go out for a run, which they can redeem for prizes and discounts on the site. So if you’re planning on running anyway, this provides a nice reward without you having to do anything extra! And if you need a little encouragement to go out, just think of the good you’re doing – or the discount on those trainers you’ve been eyeing up.

RECOMMENDED: The Best Running Gear

The company behind Running Heroes, the Sports Heroes Group, has also teamed up with Unicef to offer runners a chance to raise cash for children’s rights. It works in much the same way: you just need to create a personal account at teamunicef.org and link your tracker. It works with apps like Strava, Mapmyrun, Nike+ and others, so it’s unlikely don’t need to download anything extra. A corporate donation to Unicef is unlocked when you run your first 5km, with extra cash available for every kilometre thereafter. Again, there are prizes on offer for participants. This challenge ends on 18th September, so you’d better be quick.

Pennie Varvarides

Pennie is the founder of fitness magazine Oh My Quad and has a decade's experience working as a freelance journalist for various magazines on- and offline. She is also a personal trainer based in North London and the GoodGym Barnet trainer, so spends a lot of time running around and picking things up.